I had an offer from a low res image (web res) for a cover use. I have a period of 1 month when my back up hadn't happened yet and my laptop hard drive failed, I have over 1000 images rescued from formatted and used CF cards (recovery programs are awesome) but the drive with my info on .. I think recording and reading heads are broken .. I am sure I would be able to retrieve the info if it was just the contents areas that were damaged, through USB enclosure the disk is recognised but you can't open it (it has gotten gradually worse since it happened)

I back up, now more than I used to, but i always sued to and I still got caught out .. bugger .. will work harder for my next cover!

Has everyone cloned their C: drive, just in case? Does your backup program copy all system & work files, or just work ones (like ur pics)? Had to replace my C: drive a few weeks ago - clone drive sure came in handy. All my work files are on separate drives, which are backed up to different external drives. It's good not to put all your fish eggs in one pouch (as it were).